Dancing Tree Healing Arts

12/09/2025

“It’s only ‘just a word’ until it affects safety, boundaries, and respect.
We are NOT masseuses.
That term is outdated, inaccurate, and rooted in an era when bodywork wasn’t recognized as healthcare or a legitimate profession. Today, it also carries a long-standing sexualized connotation that puts licensed professionals at risk emotionally, professionally, and sometimes physically.
Let’s be very clear:
We are Massage Therapists.
Licensed by the state
Formally educated in anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, pathology, and injury care
Required to complete continuing education to maintain licensure
Held to strict ethical, professional, and legal standards
We work alongside chiropractors, physical therapists, trainers, and medical providers.
We assess, treat, and document pain, dysfunction, trauma, stress, and recovery not fantasies.
Calling us “masseuses” isn’t harmless.
It fuels outdated stereotypes that undermine our credibility and invite inappropriate behavior.
And yes words directly impact safety inside treatment rooms.
So when people say, “It’s just a word”…no.
It’s a word with history, consequence, and real-world fallout.
If you’re booking an appointment, referring a friend, or talking about what we do use the correct term.
Massage Therapist.
Not masseuse.
Not massager.
Not “the girl or guy who rubs backs.”
And for anyone who still wants to argue semantics this conversation exists because too many professionals have been disrespected, sexualized, or put in unsafe situations due to language people refuse to update.
If you wouldn’t call a physical therapist “the stretch girl”
or a nurse “the bedpan lady,”
don’t reduce our profession to a term that strips it of legitimacy.
Intent doesn’t cancel impact.
Ignorance isn’t a free pass.
And “that’s just what I’ve always said” isn’t an excuse.
This is a licensed, medical-adjacent profession that demands skill, education, boundaries, and respect and we’ve worked far too damn hard to keep correcting the same misinformation.
If this post makes you uncomfortable, good.
That discomfort means it’s working.
Massage Therapist.
Use it. Learn it. Respect it.
Rant over. 🎤💥
(Thank you for coming to my TED talk.)
Happy holidays!

11/26/2025

The wonderful Tara Brach. 💖 https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Nt4tvhtmc/

11/20/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/1GzsB93ZZb/

Mechanoreceptors are a remarkable part of the fascial system. They are the microscopic sensory “listening stations” embedded throughout fascia that constantly read pressure, stretch, tension, vibration, and movement. They allow the body to feel itself from the inside. Without mechanoreceptors, movement would be clumsy, uncoordinated, and disconnected. With them, movement becomes fluid, responsive, and intelligent.

Fascia is loaded with various types of mechanoreceptors, each communicating with the nervous system in its own unique way. Ruffini endings respond to slow, sustained pressure and create a parasympathetic calming effect. Pacinian corpuscles respond to vibration and rapid changes in pressure, helping the body coordinate sudden movements. Interstitial receptors monitor subtle stretches, tensions, and internal shifts; they comprise nearly eighty percent of fascial sensory input and directly influence pain perception. Golgi receptors, found near ligaments and tendon insertions, respond to deep stretch and help down-regulate muscular tension.

When a bodyworker touches fascia, these receptors are the very first structures to respond. Slow, sustained contact helps melt hypertonicity because Ruffini endings signal to the nervous system, “It’s safe to soften.” Deep or directional stretch activates Golgi receptors, signaling muscles to lengthen. Gentle vibration or oscillation stimulates Pacinian receptors, enhancing proprioception and enabling joints to move with greater confidence. Even the quietest technique, a still fascial hold, stimulates interstitial receptors, which can modulate pain and reduce sympathetic overdrive.

Altogether, mechanoreceptors weave the sensory intelligence of fascia. They are the reason the body can adapt, coordinate, stabilize, and move with fluid grace rather than mechanical force. They turn every subtle change in tension into information the brain uses to refine posture, balance, and movement patterns.

So when we work with fascia, we’re not just stretching tissue. We’re communicating with an enormous sensory network that shapes how someone moves, feels, and inhabits their body. Mechanoreceptors are part of the reason fascia is both biomechanical and deeply emotional.

11/14/2025

One example of a myofascial spiral line.Here it’s the posterior oblique sling. In therapeutic massage & exercise rehab, it’s important to consider. Also why in the words of Ida Rolf, ‘Where you think it is, it ain’t’.

11/03/2025

https://www.facebook.com/100057348322669/posts/1335795928342005/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

10/27/2025

I see many clients who present with what they call ‘sciatica’. That term often gets overused, but if that nerve is involved, nerve gliding is part is a treatment plan. This video is a good instructional, there are other techniques that can be done sitting. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQI6WK0CPbI/?igsh=MXB0OWRwc2Z4M3puOA==

10/21/2025

Jill Miller of Tune Up Fitness has a great thoracic spine mobilization exercise that is easy to follow and practice. This link directs you to the 'Owl De-Rotation' video on her site. I often recommend to my massage clients to try exercises like these, especially when they experience our prevalent 'tech neck, computer sitting syndrome'. I suggest that they take breaks about every 45 minutes, and try something like this. One can also do thoracic spine mobilizations sitting in a chair. I will post some pics of those in the comments. Cheers!

The Move of the Week helps identify and target your "body blind spots" to increase mobility, strengthen muscles, and achieve peak performance.

10/07/2025

https://www.facebook.com/100064559985021/posts/1251711710324150/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

🔗📃Effects of physical exercise on neuromuscular junction degeneration during ageing: A systematic review✨

◼️ Physical exercise serves as a potential intervention to decelerate or reverse neuromuscular junction (NMJ) degeneration associated with aging

👉Age-associated NMJ decline involves nerve terminal and postsynaptic deterioration, denervation, and loss of motor units, contributing significantly to muscle dysfunction.
👉Exercise promotes morphological reconfigurations in elderly NMJs and has been shown to promote NMJ hypertrophy and accelerate the remodeling process in the elderly, thereby potentially mitigating NMJ degradation and alleviating the progression of neuromuscular degeneration.

👇

⚙️ Structural and Functional Improvements

◼️ Effects on the Presynaptic Compartment (Nerve Terminals):
▪️ Physical training increased the nerve terminal branch, total area, nerve terminal length, and branching complexity of the presynaptic compartment.
▪️ Some studies reported that nerve terminals in old animals became significantly smaller and more homogeneous following exercise.
▪️ Endurance treadmill running resulted in a greater number of nerve terminal branches and total branch length in young animals, but not in old ones.
▪️ One study reported that exercise prevented all physiological age-related changes in EDL (Extensor Digitorum Longus) NMJs but not in soleus NMJs. The nerve terminals in exercised EDL were significantly smaller than controls.

◼️ Effects on the Postsynaptic Compartment (AChRs/Endplates):
▪️ Exercise resulted in similar beneficial effects on the postsynaptic compartment as seen in the presynaptic compartment.
▪️ Exercise improved AChR perimeters in aged rats and the overlap area in aged mice.
▪️ Postsynaptic receptor fragmentation was reduced following exercise in several studies.
▪️ Resistance training led to a 16% enlargement of endplates and significant increases in endplate perimeter lengths.
▪️ Resistance exercise also resulted in a 2-fold increase in the number of AChRs per field.
▪️ Endurance training increased the AChRs expression in the EDL.
▪️ In one clinical study, both young and elderly women showed a significant upregulation of AChR α1 mRNA in the exercised leg.

◼️ Effects on Neuromuscular Transmission:
▪️ A single-fiber electromyography study showed that voluntary wheel running resulted in a significant improvement in NMJ transmission in 27-month-old mice.
▪️ Exercise training increased the postsynaptic-to-presynaptic coupling ratio in the soleus muscle of aged rats.

🧬 Molecular and Signaling Pathway Adaptations

▪️ Physical exercise promotes the formation and maintenance of AChR clusters by influencing key molecular pathways.
▪️ Exercise increases the expression of the recombinant docking protein 7 (Dok7).
▪️ Exercise helps in stabilizing Agrin and lipoprotein receptor-related protein 4 (LRP4).
▪️ Studies indicate that the age-related degradation of the Agrin-LRP4-MuSK-Dok7 pathway—which is crucial for AChR clustering—is attenuated by exercise.
▪️ The concentration of C-terminal Agrin fragment (CAF) was found to be maintained after exercise training in older individuals, although another study noted that short-term resistance training increased circulating CAF in older adults.
▪️ Genes encoding the transporters and receptor components of glutaminergic transmission (Gria1, Gria2, Grin1, Grin2a) were significantly upregulated in exercised muscles.
▪️ Physical exercise may also impact the NMJ through the Wnt signaling pathway, which is relevant to NMJ remodeling and undergoes degradation in aged muscle.

🏋️ Training Modality Differences

▪️ The specific type of exercise influences the adaptive response of the NMJ.
▪️ Endurance training, relative to resistance and voluntary exercise, demonstrated a more pronounced effect on NMJ structural remodeling, especially in fast twitch muscle fibers.
▪️ Resistance training adaptations appear to be independent of changes in muscle fiber profile.
▪️ Resistance training increased the muscle weight of the plantaris muscles in aged rats.

👇

◼️ These findings suggest that research on exercise-related therapies could potentially attenuate the progression of neuromuscular degeneration.
However, the mechanisms related to mitochondrial oxidative stress and the regulation of Wnt-related pathways in exercise require further clarification.

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⚠️Disclaimer: Sharing a study or a part of it is NOT an endorsement. Please read the original article and evaluate critically.⚠️

Link to Article 👇

09/21/2025

08/30/2025

Ok, in time for Halloween- even a cheap plastic skeleton could allow me to recreate the Myofascial meridians for education. For both myself & clients. Very slick idea! https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNqCB3KN4Vz/?igsh=dzVtcnN6czJrZHRh